Based on a requirement of future 5G ultra-low latency (such as 1 millisecond), a data center (DC) is gradually deployed closer to users in a mobile network and is distributed to an edge of the mobile network, to provide a service for nearby user equipment (UE), so as to shorten a network transmission latency. For example, a content delivery network (CDN) and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) are solutions proposed based on this idea to reduce a transmission latency.
An application that runs at an edge of a network and is used to provide application service support to the UE may be referred to as an edge application. After DCs sink and are deployed in a distributed manner, an edge application may migrate between the DCs. This is because: first, the edge application follows a UE movement to provide an optimal service for the UE; second, the DCs plan to perform resource adjustments such as resource preemption, load balancing, and energy saving.
At present, a mobile network of a mobile operator mainly uses a centralized gateway architecture, and the gateway is deployed in a high position, such as a provincial central equipment room. After the edge application sinks to the edge of the network, in order to optimize routing and shorten a transmission latency, the gateway is inevitably deployed closer to users. The gateway being deployed closer to users means that the gateway is deployed in the mobile network in a distributed manner. The gateway being deployed closer to users and distributed deployment are another trend of the mobile network.
With the evolution of network architectures, a distributed gateway-based architecture is an enhanced network architecture proposed on the basis of a conventional network architecture based on the network function control/user (C/U) separation concept. C/U separation refers to decoupling a control plane function and a user plane function of the gateway. The enhanced network structure includes a control plane gateway (CGW) and a user plane gateway (UGW).
The control plane function/user plane function separation (referred to as CU separation) technology is one of the technologies to implement a distributed gateway. CU separation implements user plane programming and dynamic adjustments of a network function and routing, and can improve flexibility of the mobile network. A network architecture based on CU separation includes a control plane gateway (CGW) and a user plane gateway (UGW). The CGW may be integrated into a mobile control plane (MCP). The MCP delivers a forwarding rule to the UGW by using the integrated CGW.
After the DC sinks and the gateway is deployed closer to users in a distributed manner, service connection between the UE and the edge application occurs inside the mobile network. Movements of the UE and the edge application result in location changes. The mobile network faces motion events with the movements of the UE and the edge application. However, the prior art focuses on only mobility of an endpoint device in a respective management domain, and lacks linkage and coordination for the motion events of the two objects, thereby making it difficult to guide routing configuration or update between the two objects.